Improving All Those Other Power Supplies

We've spent a lot of ink (or whatever the digital equivalent is of ink...bits?) discussing ways to improve power supply efficiency in computers. The 80 Plus initiative and Energy Star 4.0 are the two most prominent fronts in the all-out war on wasted power, but I recently wrote about plans from the Climate Savers Computing Initiative to tackle this issue as well.

But there are other power supplies out there--lots of 'em, actually, and they too often suffer from the same inefficiencies that dog computers. To address this, ON Semiconductor recently announced a reference design for xDSL modem power adapters. The GreenPoint reference design is Energy Star compliant (this type of PSU is required to consume under half a watt in standby, and the GreenPoint sucks just 240 milliwatts), and according the company, "it can be easily modified for use with 10-20 watt, single output-voltage adapters for printers, routers, and hubs." That's right, you've been worrying about your PC too much, and ignoring the constellation of other inefficient PSUs under your desk.

The company will be demonstrating the power supply in action later this week--but I wouldn't plan on stopping by. That's got to be among the least interesting things I'd ever want to see demonstrated. But the show ON will be attending, the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) in Austin, TX, which runs from Feb. 25 to 27, sounds fascinating. Are any readers attending, and willing to summarize the event for us?

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